DAVAO CITY (PIA) - - The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region XI has called on more aspiring young farmers to engage in agribusiness through the Young Farmers Challenge (YFC) program.
For the first two years of implementation of the YFC program since 2021, there have been 179 young agriculture entrepreneurs in the region who have participated in the program, said DA-XI Supervising Agriculturist Melinda G. Rubellano during the agency’s AgriBiz media forum, June 20.
Through the YFC program, DA has been providing a grant of start-up assistance to those young Filipinos farmers aged 18–30 years old who have the interest, experience, and capability to engage in agriculture and fishery business enterprise.
Based on the participation of the young agripreneurs in the region, Rubellano said that they have noticed an increase in willingness to learn and their aggressiveness in handling the business.
She added that the program has expanded in a wider vision, not only to enhance and establish the young
entrepreneurs, but also to include those who have zero knowledge yet willing to learn about startup agribusiness.
“If our young generation will not engage in agricultural undertaking or agribusiness, there will come a time that our commodities will be coming from outside the country,” Rubellano said in the vernacular.
She said that they have increased the amount of cash assistance from P50,000 to P80,000 intended for their initial capital.
DA-XI has extended the start-up capital to recipients from the far-flung areas in Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte. (JMR/JSS, Interns/PIA-XI)
